Lots has been written already about Google’s new initiative called App Engine, a preview-release developer platform for Python applications, and now Microsoft seems to be throwing itself in the ring – where Amazon and Salesforce are also to be found – in order to get at least a piece of the cloud computing buzz momentum. LiveSide spotted a job posting with clear mentions of the Microsoft Utility Computing Platform, code-named Red Dog, and it sounds very much like a platform for building a Google App Engine type service.
LiveSide’s take:
“The posting itself is a little dense, written to appeal to seasoned developers looking for new challenges. But to paraphrase a bit, here’s what the (CIS) team is building with Red Dog:
- an “efficient, virtualized” environment
- a “fully automated service management system” (like the Google App Engine, you won’t have to worry about managing the system)
- on “highly scalable” storage services (you only use the storage you need)
- the service will “scale to millions of machines” across Microsoft’s data centers (geo-located, easy to maintain data centers, remember?)
- “will lead the marketplace as the best platform for rapid development, deployment, and maintenance of internet services and applications”
- SDK and tools will be included for external and internal customers
- V1 for external customers in the coming year
Meanwhile, Gartner analysts Daryl Plummer and Thomas Bittman reportedly stated at the Gartner Emerging Technologies conference in Las Vegas that it will be another year – 2009 – before companies will start using cloud computing services extensively. “In the meantime, folks will have to define and sort out a lot of mumbo jumbo about the cloud.”
Interesting times!
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